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Numerous fungal canker pathogens threaten almond production in California, causing high tree mortality and reducing orchard longevity. Pruning wounds are the main infection sites for these pathogens. This study aimed to identify the lowest risk period for pruning almond trees and to determine the duration of susceptibility of pruning wounds to fungal infections. During 2 years at two locations, pruning wounds were made monthly from September to January and inoculated with Botryosphaeria dothidea, Eutypa lata, Neofusicoccum parvum or Neoscytalidium dimidiatum, at 0, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8 weeks after pruning. Pruning wounds were susceptible to infection by N. parvum and N. dimidiatum from September to December, with a significant decrease in susceptibility for wounds made in January relative to September. Fresh wounds had the highest probability of infection by N. dimidiatum, as wounds 1 week or older were less likely to be infected. Pruning month did not significantly impact wound susceptibility to B. dothidea; susceptibility decreased sharply with wound age. Wound susceptibility to E. lata significantly differed amongst pruning months, with pruning wounds of 1 week or older made in December and January being the least susceptible. These results indicated that delayed pruning in December and January can reduce the risks of canker pathogen infections compared to early pruning from September to November. This study showed that pruning wounds were most susceptible to infection during the first 2 weeks following pruning; thus, pruning wounds should be protected for at least 2 weeks shortly after pruning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While LRP1 is a cellular receptor that mediates tau uptake and potentiates tau seeding, we observed LRP1‐independent uptake of tau in LRP1‐genetically deficient cells and hypothesized that the sortilin‐related receptor (SORL1) could also be involved in tau processing. Method: Surface plasmon resonance was used to assess tau binding to SORL1. 125I‐labelled tau uptake assays were used to investigate the role of SORL1 in endocytosis. The P301S FRET biosensor was used to assess SORL1's role in cytosolic tau seeding, using both WT and AD‐associated mutations in the SORL1 gene (G511R and N1358S). Confocal microscopy was used to investigate colocalization and intracellular trafficking of tau and SORL1. Finally, we investigated the impact of SORL1 on tau processing in vivo by injecting human pathogenic tau isolated from AD patients into the hippocampus of SORL1 knockout vs wildtype mice and analyzing via immunohistochemistry. Result: We confirmed high‐affinity binding of tau to SORL1 and found that fluorescently labeled tau colocalizes with overexpressed SORL1 in H4 neuroglioma cells. When we knocked down SORL1 expression using siRNA in H4 cells, we observed a significant increase in the LRP1‐mediated degradation of 125I‐labeled tau, revealing that SORL1 directs tau away from lysosomal degradative pathways. To determine if this occurs in vivo, we injected pathogenic forms of human tau into the hippocampal region of WT and SORL1‐deficient mice. Two days following injection, preliminary results suggest less human tau retention in the brains of SORL1‐deficient mice when compared to WT controls. Together, these data suggest that SORL1 may have a dual function in tau metabolism: impacting both uptake of tau, and trafficking of pathogenic tau to lysosomes. We also found that SORL1 promotes cytosolic tau seeding induced by pathogenic forms of tau. The AD‐associated N1358S mutation SORL1 gene demonstrated a significant increase in tau seeding when compared with WT SORL1. Conclusion: These studies identify SORL1 as a sorting receptor for tau that contributes to seeding of pathogenic tau. Furthermore, they indicated that SORL1 directs tau away from lysosomal degradation pathways, and identify promotion of tau seeding as a potential mechanism by which the SORL1 N1358S mutation contributes to AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Grapevines, like other perennial crops, are affected by so‐called ‘trunk diseases’, which damage the trunk and other woody tissues. Mature grapevines typically contract more than one trunk disease and often multiple grapevine trunk pathogens (GTPs) are recovered from infected tissues. The co‐existence of different GTP species in complex and dynamic microbial communities complicates the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying disease development, especially under vineyard conditions. The objective of this study was to develop and optimize a community‐level transcriptomics (i.e. metatranscriptomics) approach that could monitor simultaneously the virulence activities of multiple GTPs in planta. The availability of annotated genomes for the most relevant co‐infecting GTPs in diseased grapevine wood provided the unprecedented opportunity to generate a multi‐species reference for the mapping and quantification of DNA and RNA sequencing reads. We first evaluated popular sequence read mappers using permutations of multiple simulated datasets. Alignment parameters of the selected mapper were optimized to increase the specificity and sensitivity for its application to metagenomics and metatranscriptomics analyses. Initial testing on grapevine wood experimentally inoculated with individual GTPs confirmed the validity of the method. Using naturally infected field samples expressing a variety of trunk disease symptoms, we show that our approach provides quantitative assessments of species composition, as well as genome‐wide transcriptional profiling of potential virulence factors, namely cell wall degradation, secondary metabolism and nutrient uptake for all co‐infecting GTPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ascomycete Neofusicoccum parvum, one of the causal agents of Botryosphaeria dieback, is a destructive wood-infecting fungus and a serious threat to grape production worldwide. The capability to colonize woody tissue, combined with the secretion of phytotoxic compounds, is thought to underlie its pathogenicity and virulence. Here, we describe the repertoire of virulence factors and their transcriptional dynamics as the fungus feeds on different substrates and colonizes the woody stem. We assembled and annotated a highly contiguous genome using single-molecule real-time DNA sequencing. Transcriptome profiling by RNA sequencing determined the genome-wide patterns of expression of virulence factors both in vitro (potato dextrose agar or medium amended with grape wood as substrate) and in planta. Pairwise statistical testing of differential expression, followed by co-expression network analysis, revealed that physically clustered genes coding for putative virulence functions were induced depending on the substrate or stage of plant infection. Co-expressed gene clusters were significantly enriched not only in genes associated with secondary metabolism, but also in those associated with cell wall degradation, suggesting that dynamic co-regulation of transcriptional networks contributes to multiple aspects of N. parvum virulence. In most of the co-expressed clusters, all genes shared at least a common motif in their promoter region, indicative of co-regulation by the same transcription factor. Co-expression analysis also identified chromatin regulators with correlated expression with inducible clusters of virulence factors, suggesting a complex, multi-layered regulation of the virulence repertoire of N. parvum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]